of human language, it is, when healthy and sincere, never incapable of expressing itself in work. Let not this bright week, consecrated throughout to the Nativity of our Lord, pass without our each doing some one work of mercy and self-sacrifice, to His praise and glory, Who for the love of us deigned to become Man. Some poor family may be clothed or fed; some sore and broken heart may be comforted; some unwelcome duty, which will lighten another's burden, perhaps save his health from premature decay, may be cheerfully undertaken. If any should need some definite suggestion, we may send something to the Fund for the Irish Ladies in Distress; or we may help, according to our power, the noble Mission of the Universities in Central Africa. There are abundant opportunities of kindly service. Only let us keep our eye fixed on Him Whom the Father sent forth, and Who was born of a woman, and there will be no question, for any long time, what to do or how to do it.

SERMON VI.

BORN OF A VIRGIN.

(SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS.)

ST. MATT. I. 22, 23.

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying, Behold, a Virgin shall be with Child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

ANY readers of the Bible must be struck by the reason

MANY

connected with the Birth of Christ: "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet." Perhaps we whisper to ourselves that the event predicted is, after all, more important than the prediction; and that it would have been more natural to say that the prophecy existed for the sake of the event, than the event for the sake of the prophecy; that Isaiah's utterance was meant to prepare the world for Jesus Christ, than that the Birth of Jesus Christ was designed to justify Isaiah. But, in truth, both the prophecy and its fulfilment were from God; and the independent and higher importance of the event is not inconsistent with its being also a certificate of the Prophet's accuracy. There were other reasons, no doubt, for the Birth of Jesus Christ of

a Virgin-Mother; but one reason for it was that it was already foretold on Divine authority. And it fell in with St. Matthew's general plan throughout his Gospel, to insist on this particular reason. He wrote for Churches consisting almost entirely of converts from Judaism; and he is concerned, at almost every step of his narrative, to show that the Life of Jesus, in all its particulars, corresponded to the statements of Jewish prophecy, as understood by the Jews themselves, respecting the coming Messiah. So he begins at the beginning, with the Birth of Christ; and he says that Jesus was born just as Isaiah had said that Christ would be born, and, among other reasons, because Isaiah had said so. Those first Jewish Christians might feel wonder, even scandal, when first they heard of the embarrassment of St. Joseph, and of the Angelic assurances; but they had only to open the roll of prophecy to find that the history had been accurately anticipated. "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying, Behold, a Virgin shall be with Child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." In St. Matthew's eyes, then, Isaiah is almost as much the historian as he is the Prophet of our Lord's Nativity. But is it clear that when Isaiah uttered the words which are quoted he meant to predict such an event as St. Matthew records?

It has been suggested that this was not really Isaiah's meaning; that Isaiah had in view some other event, at once nearer to his own times, and more commonplace and ordinary than the Birth of the Redeemer; and that St. Matthew accommodates the Prophet's language, by a gentle pressure, to the necessities of the supernatural account which he is himself narrating. And a main

reason which is urged for this view of Isaiah's meaning is, that if we look to the circumstances under which his prophecy was uttered, it is difficult to think that so distant an event as the Birth of Messiah would have at all served his purpose in giving a sign to Ahaz.

а

What, then, were the circumstances which led Isaiah to proclaim, "Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His Name Emmanuel "?a Ahaz, the King of Judah, was besieged in his capital by the allied forces of Israel and Syria, under their kings Pekah and Rezin. These kings were really leagued against the rising empire of Assyria; but they thought that they would best consolidate their own power in Palestine by deposing the reigning family of David from the throne of Jerusalem and setting up a vassal monarch, "the son of Tabeal," on whose services they could reckon in the approaching struggle with Assyria. Isaiah was sent to encourage Ahaz and his son to make a stout resistance, and to assure them that, notwithstanding the project of the allied kings, God would be faithful to His covenant with David. These associated kings, Isaiah says, need occasion Ahaz no anxiety; they were like brands that are nearly burnt out; there was no Divine force in Syria, and no political future for Israel. Ahaz had only to trust God; all would be well.

b

Ahaz was silent; silent because suspicious and distrustful. And then Isaiah bade him ask for some token which might assure him of God's presence with and good will towards him. "Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above." Had Ahaz then asked for a token of God's good will towards himself personally, or his immediate descendants, it would, no doubt, have been granted. But Ahaz was bent upon

a Isa. vii. 14.

b lb. 6.

c Ib. 11.

an irreligious policy of his own; he thought that, by the aid of Assyria, he would be able to do without the God and the religion of his ancestors; he looked on God and His Prophets as personal enemies who thwarted his plans; and he did not wish, by asking for a sign, to commit himself to a religious creed and system with which, he hoped, he had parted company for ever. Yet Ahaz, standing before the Prophet, could not refuse to say anything; he must accept or decline the invitation to ask for a sign. He declined to do so; and, as irreligious people often do in like circumstances, he pleaded a religious scruple as the reason for his refusal. The old Law had warned Israel against tempting the Lord by asking for new evidences or "signs" of such truth as was already sufficiently attested ;' and Ahaz, who had resorted freely to the forbidden arts of necromancy gravely produced this entirely insincere reason to account for his resolve: "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.""

C

a

Then it was that Isaiah spoke, not without righteous anger, to King Ahaz and his son. "Hear ye now, ye house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign." A sign would be given, but Ahaz could now no longer determine its drift and character. It would show that God would be true to His promises to David; but it would afford scant encouragement to the personal ambitions of the degenerate descendants of the man after God's own heart. The earthly throne of David might perish; but the promise of unfailing empire made to David would still be safe, though it would be fulfilled in a distant age, and by unthoughtof agencies. Just as Moses was assured that God had sent him, by the sign of a future deliverance from Egypt, b Isa. vii. 12.

a Deut. vi. 16.

c Ib. 13.